Gardeners' Notes:

Like other Deciduous Azaleas, the Oconee, originally from Georgia and South Carolina, is a high quality, neat, clean plant, that is somewhat expensive to buy. I bought one at a native plant nursery in 2003 in se PA and mine has been doing well in the good quality clay soil that is just slightly acid. Its flower color ranges from yellow to orange to salmon to orangish-red. It gets some fall color that is alright, usually orangish. The stout stems also look good. Evergreen Azaleas with the tiny leaves, thin stems, and bushy habit from East Asia, that are sort of cheap to buy, are great as florist plants, but not so great as landscape plants, as they get straggly.

The Oconee Azalea, also known as Rhododendron speciosum, is possibly the most variable of all the native azaleas, with the flowers of seed grown plants ranging from salmon and strong pink to yellow to orange to red. It varies from low mounding shrubs to plants six feet or more in height. The non-fragrant flowers are produced in early to mid-April, following Piedmont azalea and before the Swamp azalea and the Alabama azalea. (From Lazy K Nursery's Garden Delights web site)